Business Beyond Borders: Law, Firms and Markets in the US and China

From Friday 17^th January to Saturday 18^th January emc3 managed NYU’s Business Beyond Border’s conference in Shanghai, China. The main conference took place at The Westin Bund Centre, Shanghai hotel on the bund in the Diamond Ballroom. The Westin hotel contains 570 guest rooms with city views, the dining options consisted of a wide variety – ranging from “The Stage International Buffet” serving the local and international cuisines, “EEST – The Crystal Garden” dishes from their team of Chinese, Japanese and Thai chefs – the natural daylight and garden feel adds a friendly atmosphere to the restaurant. “Prego” – an authentic Italian Restaurant in the Hotel – bringing an Italian element to China. Unfortunately we didn’t have the time to visit the Niche Bar in the hotel but it offers a number of signature cocktails and international selection of beers and spirits.  Other hotel facilities consisted of executive lounge, a fitness centre which consisted of gym equipment, heated indoor pool, Jacuzzi, steam room, sauna, yoga, cardio and weight room – all of this came with complimentary towels, headsets and bottled water! There were a further 17 breakout rooms - we used one as a staff room; the speakers were also able to prepare here if they required.

The conference kicked off with opening speech by Jennifer Carpenter, associate professor, NYU Stern School of Business; Associate Director, Centre for Global Economy and Business  talking about ‘The Real Value of China’s Stock Market’ –The day continued with more exciting topics from various different speakers ranging from Professors to Executive Presidents and Directors from mainly Chinese firms and schools such as Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance, Peking University Law School, Shanghai Stock Exchange and Fudan University.

After the conference day on Saturday the guests proceeded to Waldorf Astoria Shanghai on the Bund – famed for the Long Bar (an impressive 34 metre bar counter and longest in the Far East back in the early days of the 1910s.) Waldorf has 260 guest rooms along with spacious suites and an array of amenities ranging from the spa, fitness, shopping and much more. They have a good range of dining areas within the hotel, the Grand Brassiere (presents dishes from around the world and a Champagne Brunch on Sundays), Pelham’s – a modern French cuisine which uses local ingredients and seasonal products – Chef Bruno combines the modern French cuisine with classics that he has perfected over the past 20 years’ – his signature dish includes the Foie Gras Terrine with Cassis Gastrique and Alaskan King Crab with Avocado-Crab Cannelloni. The other restaurants rang from a variety of Chinese to afternoon tea in the Salon de Ville – bringing an element of east meets west!

After the reception drinks a private dinner was arranged which took place at The Peninsula Shanghai. The private event space for the dinner party was perfect for what NYU required; there was space for the guests to have a reception area before and after dinner, the décor was unique as it presented an Asian fee but seems to have vibes which could be related to old China, for example the cabinets and drawers were wooden and Asian patterned. It provided a lovely touch of presenting classic luxury in Shanghai.

The next morning the half conference day ran smoothly and had a good amount of attendees for the event, there were talks from Michael H. Posner, Professor of Business and Society, NYU Stern School of Business, the conference day ended a little after 2pm as the Q&A slightly overran due to all the attendees being extremely interested in the topics in the agenda!Overall the conference days were a great success, both attendees and speakers provided good feedback and overall a great success for our client. 

Emc3 have a far international reach with the events that we manage, the people that work for us, the local knowledge we have as well as cultural grasp of the locations we have worked with accumulate in a successful and professional formula for managing events for our clients. If you have any events requirements in Shanghai or beyond please do not hesitate to contact our senior events manager, Anita Engebretsen at anita@emc3.eu

By Ellen Lai